Tag: Dallas

Writer’s Log – August 18, 2023

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Dr. Jim Kepler

I’m Jim Kepler, Christian nonfiction author bringing you inspiration and encouragement as you join me on my writing journey. I’m an older adult, widower, and write as my retirement job. If I can write and get published, why not you? Thank you for joining me as I share encouragement and my journey. And now here’s the my update for Friday, August 18, 2023.

Yesterday, Dallas shattered the temperature record, hitting a scorching 109°F! That’s two degrees higher than the old record of 107°F. Can you believe Dallas’ temperature history only spans 125 years? Today marked just the 5th time in that span when it hit 109°F or higher in August. 

Brace yourselves, because the forecast predicts we’re in for 109°F or hotter for the next few days, with over 105°F for the next 12 days! Let’s cross our fingers that we don’t match or break today’s record high of 112°F.

The day kicked off like any other. I woke up, took care of the usual morning routine, prescription meds in check, and out the door before 8:00 AM. My go-to start? A long pit stop at Starbucks for some much-needed morning coffee, a yummy bagel, and writing.

Today at the coffee joint, it felt like I stepped into a cheerleading movie scene! High school cheerleaders were all decked out in their outfits, with those knee socks and super short skirts. Seriously, when did cheerleader outfits shrink so much? Some of my headbands are wider than their micro minis! And when did they get so young? I did the math, and it’ll be like the years 2075-2080 before these girls are my age.

Still deep into editing and rewriting my upcoming nonfiction book “Hope: How to Have Hope During Times of Hardship from my series The Bible Speaks to Life Issues Book Three. My trigger finger needs some surgical attention, but I’m holding off until after my fall getaway. Also dealing with a trigger thumb on my left hand, probably from compensating for the trigger finger. Add in the ol’ arthritis, and it’s a party! 

Dictation is my savior – using it for most of my social media posts and emails. Takes me back to the days after graduating from university in the ’70s, when dictation was king and secretaries were wizards. The PC wave pretty much ended that era. And secretaries have transformed into administrative assistants.

Later today, it’s off to the fitness center for my walk. Gotta keep the momentum going – been hitting my walking goal for 26 out of the last 30 days! I take Sunday’s off to rest the tired old body of mine. And boy, does regular exercise make a difference. Even in yesterday’s blistering heat at Dallas Love Field, I trekked from my car to the terminal barely breaking a sweat.

Nap time’s on the schedule for later today too – a well-deserved one, considering the heat, my age, and a big night ahead. Mensa group’s monthly fundraiser is on, and we’re playing poker to rake in some funds for scholarships. Going with my partner-in-crime “she who can’t be named on the Internet” and the Chicago lady I met at Love Field yesterday. I just am no longer able to rock and roll all night and party every day. That’s now the formula for an dying from exhaustion. 

Somewhere in the mix, I’ll sneak in some quality reading and tune in to soothing jazz as I immerse myself in a blissful hour or two with a good book in my comfy recliner.

Life lessons have taught me that hot summers don’t last forever. Fall’s around the corner, with cooler weather and then winter – and even Christmas! Appreciating them more as I live through the summer blast furnace, surviving for the bliss ahead.

You can find my books at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jimmie-Kepler/author/B00IBTG83K or https://books2read.com/u/4jNAV5 or https://books2read.com/u/3k5eGO.

Stay hydrated, keep flashing those smiles, and let’s embrace whatever comes our way!

 

 

Saturday Coffee Sipping

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Dr. Jim Kepler at EIland Coffee

Hello my wonderful friends and acquaintances.

The last few days in Dallas were terrible. Last Sunday, January 29, at 7 p.m., the temperature dropped below freezing at DFW airport. On Thursday, February 2, at noon, the temperature got to 33 degrees, the first time in 89 hours where we were above freezing. Burr describes the time in between Sunday night and noon Thursday.

Homebound

I was homebound during these hours. Thursday we warmed into the forties and Friday found low fifties as daytime high temperatures. Both nights found below freezing temperatures and roads again icy in the early morning hours. Yucky, yes yucky, is a noble word to describe the past week.

Eiland Coffee

This Saturday morning finds me at Eiland Coffee, an Indy coffee house on Custer Road in Richardson, Texas for morning coffee and writing. I needed a better atmosphere for my morning writing and reading than the national chain coffeehouse provides.

Eiland Coffee is the place for a cozy atmosphere. After a quiet, homebound week, the thought of a coffeehouse with the hustle and bustle of cars snaked around the building and people dashing between the autos to pick up their mobile orders and almost tripping over each other made me shutter. A smile, plenty of seating, world-class coffee, and a great playlist of coffee house light jazz on their music system adds to the atmosphere.

My MacBook and coffee at Eiland Coffee

Morning Pages

My hopes for the weekend are to do my morning pages. What are morning pages?

Morning pages are a stream-of-consciousness journaling habit done every morning. The idea is to wake up, open your morning journal, and write three pages of longhand of any thoughts that come out of your head. I incorporate morning pages into my daily routine before my Bible reading and journaling time.

Walking or lack of it

The ice covered week stopped my daily walking for exercise. I couldn’t risk a fall by going outside. Impassible roads made going to the mall to walk out of the question. Later today I’ll walk somewhere. My heart lets me know when I don’t keep up my enough steps a day.

House Cleaning

Another hope is to have the house cleaned. The housekeeper descended on the house this morning. She wasn’t able to make her usual day because of the inclement weather. I need the house clean as tonight I’m entertaining a three friends.

Fun and Fellowship

A last hope is for an evening of fun and fellowship. Add the guests to a time of food, fun, and catching up and you have the formula for a successful night. Dinner tonight is genuine Chicago deep dish pizzas. We ordered nine pizzas from she-who-can’t-be-named-on-the-Internet’s favorite pizzeria in Chicago.

They were supposed to be delivered yesterday but are weather delayed. The pizzas come in refrigerated packaging (not frozen) and need cooked. They are a little pricy but great.

I hope you have a great day planned. My coffee is great. I’m drinking a 12 ounce Americano this morning.

Take care.
Jimmie.

Pioneer Plaza & Texas Longhorns

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Texas Longhorns in downtown Dallas, Texas
Texas Longhorns in downtown Dallas, Texas

Pioneer Plaza:
Located just north of the Dallas Convention Center is Pioneer Plaza. It is a large public park in the Convention Center District of downtown Dallas, Texas. The centerpiece of the Pioneer Plaza is large sculptures. It is a heavily visited tourist site. Located next to Pioneer Park Cemetery, which features the Confederate War Memorial, the two offer the largest public open space in Dallas’ central business district.

Background of Pioneer Plaza:
The land was once railroad and warehouse property. Built on land cleared as part of the failed Griffin Square development, developer Trammel Crow gets credit for the idea behind the sculptures and plaza. He wanted an iconic “Western” sculpture in the City of Dallas. He assembled a group to give the sculptures. The project started in 1992, at a total cost of $9,000,000.00. Built on 4.2 acres of land donated by the City of Dallas, $4,800,000.00 of the cost came from private funds raised from individuals and local businesses.

Sculpture:
The large sculpture celebrates the nineteenth-century cattle drives that took place along the Shawnee Trail. It was the earliest and easternmost route by which Texas longhorn cattle moved to northern railheads. The trail passed through Austin, Waco, and Dallas until the Chisholm Trail siphoned off most of the traffic in 1867.

Artist Robert Summers of Glen Rose, Texas created 70 bronze steers and three trail riders sculptures. Each steer is larger-than-life at six feet high. Altogether the sculpture is the largest bronze monument of its kind in the world. Set along an artificial ridge, man-made limestone cliff the native landscaping with a flowing stream and waterfall creates a dramatic effect.

Maintained by the adjacent Dallas Convention Center, Pioneer Plaza is the second most visited tourist attraction in downtown Dallas.

Source:

Creative Commons License

Pioneer Plaza by Wikipedia and Jimmie A. Kepler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Plaza.

The photograph was taken in Dallas, Texas USA by Jimmie A. Kepler in December 2008.

Creative Commons License

Texas Longhorns in downtown Dallas, Texas by Jimmie A. Kepler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at https://www.dropbox.com/s/6u5jvbvtdlc08k8/100_1613.jpg.

Poem: Born during the Korean War

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640px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_originalBorn during the Korean War

Born during the Korean War,
Raised in the 1950s and 1960s
Stay at home mom and hard working dad
They gave us a better chance than they ever had.
And were glad they did, but never told them.

Eisenhower was president when we started school,
Boys wore flat-tops, tee-shirts, and Levi’s jeans.
Girls in dresses, saddle oxfords and knee sox,
Kennedy debated Nixon,
And we got a black and white TV.

Mantle and Maris chased Babe Ruth,
In Cuba we faced off the Soviet Missiles,
In Dallas President Kennedy was shot,
It was different before the British invasion,
And then the world started to rock.

Our hair grew longer, our skirts got shorter,
We had loud music our parents couldn’t stand,
We watched Viet-Nam each night over supper,
Hey, hey LBJ how many kids did you kill today?
We wanted muscle cars and drove old Chevys.

Saturday night with our favorite girl,
Sheiks and Trojans would go with us to the drive-in.
And we’d be in luck each month if nature struck
And if not you said I do – and did
Beatles, Stones, CCR, Johnny Cash, and Glen Campbell

We crossed the Trinity River for a beer,
Boones Farm and Everclear… and Nixon was back
And we buried Everett who was killed in ‘Nam
With dozens from high school somehow surviving the big trip
And we went to the moon.

Jimmie Aaron Kepler
January 1974

Photo Source:
“Aldrin Apollo 11 original” by NASA – http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/AS11-40-5903HR.jpghttp://www.archive.org/details/AS11-40-5903 (TIFF image). Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Summer in Dallas

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Dallas, Texas USA

Howdy, this is Jimmie Kepler. I don’t know where the readers of my blog live, or what their weather is like. I live in Dallas, Texas. Dallas is in the southwestern part of the United States of America. It is summer in Dallas.

Long time residences and native Texans refer to this time of year as “the blast furnace”. Why do we call it that? It is because the weather is usually as hot as if you were near a blast furnace.

Speaking of the word hot, it is not used by the weather person on the television or radio until the temperature is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When we are just in the 90 degrees range, they say it will be warm today. My guess is where you live 90 degrees is considered hot. It isn’t that way in Dallas or north Texas.

Most days when I get off work, if the temperature is below 100 degrees I do not turn on my car air conditioner. The exception is when I am just sitting in traffic.

To stay cool in our homes in the summer we run fans and air conditioning. My house is normally cooled to 78 degrees with a fan running to keep the air moving.

My day job considers the warm weather. We are allowed to wear shorts to work twelve months a year. On the warmest days, you will find me in khaki shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. It is very casual business dress.

Why not leave me a comment about where you live and the weather you have in July? I would love to hear from you!

March 17, 2014

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Frank Buck
Frank Buck

On This Day in Texas History:

On this day in 1884, Frank “Bring ‘Em Back Alive” Buck was born in Gainesville, Texas. He was a hunter and “collector of wild animals,” as well as a movie actor, director, writer and producer. He traveled the world catching and shipping exotic animals to zoos and circuses. He wrote at least seven books. The best known of the books is “Bring ‘Em Back Alive”. He is also known for his 1930s and 40s jungle adventure movies including Wild Cargo, Jungle Cavalcade, Jacare, Killer of the Amazon, many of which included staged “fights to the death” between formidable beasts. Mr. Buck died of lung cancer in Houston on March 25, 1950.

Saint Patrick’s Day:

Dallas has a Saint Patrick’s Day Parade on Greenville Avenue. It has 90 floats and more than 125,000 people in attendance. This year the parade was on Saturday, March 15. The parade began at Greenville at Blackwell Street and ends at SMU Boulevard.

St Patrick's Day, Dallas, TX.
St Patrick’s Day, Dallas, TX.

Photo Credit:

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

w:en:Creative Commons

Description: Dallas, Texas
Date: 16 March 2012, 21:04:07
Source: Flickr: skyline – st. patrick’s day
Author: adrian valenzuela

March 14, 2014

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Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby

This Day in Texas History:

It is Friday March 14, 2014. It is the 73rd day of 2014. There are 292 days left in the year. It was 50 years ago today that Jack Ruby was convicted of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. Less than four months earlier, back on November 24, 1963, Ruby had shot and killed Oswald. Lee Harvey Oswald was the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy. The shooting took place on live national television in the basement of the Dallas City Jail.

I find it amazing that the trial and conviction happened so quickly – less than four months after the crime. Most people don’t know the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Jack Ruby’s conviction. Mr. Ruby was awaiting a retrial when he died in prison in 1967. Ruby always denied he was part of a conspiracy. He stated until his death that he shot Oswald on impulse from grief and outrage over his concern for Jackie and the kids, referring to President Kennedy’s widow.

My Memories:

I was living at 803 Jefferson Avenue in Seguin, Texas when John Kennedy was assassinated. I was a fifth grade student at Jefferson Avenue Elementary School. I saw Ruby shoot Oswalt. It was craziness on television and the world felt out of control to me. My father was in South Vietnam at the time. He was in the United States Air Force. We were proud that Texas Lyndon Johnson was the new president as we had no doubt he could lead the country and protect us from the Soviet Union. Mostly, I remember being sad about the entire assassination.

Photo Credit: Image can be found at http://www.history-matters.com/archive/archive_holdings.htm Originated from the report of the Warren Commission a US Government report. From WH Vol.18 p.32, detail. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. See Copyright.

March 11, 2014

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This Day in Texas History:

It is Tuesday March 11, 2014. It is the 70th day of 2014. There are 295 days left in the year. General Sam Houston arrived at Gonzales, Texas on March 11, 1836. He took command of the Texas Army. While there word reached him of the battle of the Alamo and its fall. In a few days he would learn of a second defeat, Goliad. He had on 374 men. From here he began a 41 day adventure. It was combination retreat, recruitment and training adventure. It would all come to an end with an 18 minute battle at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The result was the defeat of Santa Anna and the independence of Texas.

Pioneer Plaza:
Located just north of the Dallas Convention Center is Pioneer Plaza. It is a large public park in the Convention Center District of downtown Dallas, Texas. The center piece of the Pioneer Plaza is large sculptures. It is a heavily visited tourist site. Located next to Pioneer Park Cemetery which features the Confederate War Memorial, the two offer the largest public open space in Dallas’ central business district.

Background of Pioneer Plaza:
The land was once railroad and warehouse property. Built on land cleared as part of the failed Griffin Square development, developer Trammel Crow gets credit for the idea behind the sculptures and plaza. He wanted an iconic “Western” sculpture in the City of Dallas. He assembled a group to give the sculptures. Begun in 1992, the $9 million project started on 4.2 acres of land donated by the City of Dallas. $4.8 million of the cost came from private funds raised from individuals and local businesses.

Sculpture:
The large sculpture celebrates the nineteenth century cattle drives that took place along the Shawnee Trail. It was the earliest and easternmost route by which Texas longhorn cattle moved to northern railheads. The trail passed through Austin, Waco, and Dallas until the Chisolm Trail siphoned off most of the traffic in 1867.

Artist Robert Summers of Glen Rose, Texas created 70 bronze steers and 3 trail riders sculptures. Each steer is larger-than-life at six feet high. All together the sculpture is the largest bronze monument of its kind in the world. Set along an artificial ridge, man-made limestone cliff the native landscaping with a flowing stream and waterfall creates a dramatic effect.

Maintained by the adjacent Dallas Convention Center, Pioneer Plaza is the second most visited tourist attraction in downtown Dallas.

I took these pictures of the sculptures in December 2008. Click on them and they will enlarge.

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Creative Commons License
Longhorns at Pioneer Plaza in Dallas, Texas by Jimmie A. Kepler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://jimmiekepler.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/cropped-100_1613.jpg.

Taken by Jimmie A. Kepler in December 2008 at the Pioneer Plaza near the Dallas Convention Center in downtown Dallas the photo is of the Pioneer Plaza Cattle Drive. Created by artist Roberts Summers of Glen Rose, Texas, it consists of bronze pieces – 40 longhorn cattle herded by 3 cowboys on horses.

Source: Additional information on Pioneer Plaza can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Plaza.